Sunday book pick: ‘The Children of the New Forest’, the first historical novel for young readers

“This is a bad world, and I thank heaven that I have lived in the woods.”

Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) was a man of many talents. He belonged to sea – he loved it as an explorer and deeply understood it as a naval officer. He invented the modern lifeboat and remained in faithful service of the crown till he retired in 1830. He was a royalist unlike any other and staunchly disapproving of the 17th-century English civil war.

Life in the forest

Published in 1847, his final novel, The Children of the New Forest (and the first historical fiction for young readers), recreates the early days of King Charles I’s defeat in the civil war and his exile in the New Forest. The rebels are still out for his blood and the soldiers have been sent to search the forest. Playing truant, they set Arnwood, Colonel Beverley’s house, on fire. The colonel died in action while fighting for the king and his wife, of heartbreak. Their four orphaned children – Edward, Humphrey, Alice and Edith – are thought to have perished in the fire. However, Jacob Armitage, a local verderer, comes to their rescue. The children are told to hide in an isolated cottage and pretend to...

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